DC Comics to restart heroes at comic Number one

In September DC Comics intends to restart all of its superhero titles. Each one of them will start once again from issue number one. DC owns such iconic roles as Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and The Flash.

DC’s new imaginative team to do well

There are 70 years of storylines being left behind by DC’s new innovative team, Geoff Johns and Jim Lee, leaving a clean slate to work with. The change will come with new origins, redone costumes and more modern plotlines. According to Lee, this will “make characters more identifiable and accessible to comic fans new and old.”

Heroes battle it out

There have been DC and Marvel Comics for years. DC has always come in second place. Walt Disney Business is owned by Marvel who has about 40 percent of the market for comic books. About 27 percent goes to Time Warner’s DC. The plan is to change things for DC. DC will hopefully start to take up more of the industry.

The Justice League

August 31 will be the starting of the new DC saga. The Justice League will begin. Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Flash and Aquaman are all in the Justice League which debuted in Feb. 1960 in “The Brave and the Bold” magazine.

There will be 13 new titles released every week in Sept while 52 titles will reboot altogether. Fifty-two is a magical number at DC, being the quantity of alternate Earths which “exist” in the company’s “multiverse.”

New digital strategy

Rebooting the “Justice League” will mean new strategy. A new market needs to be used. DC will plan an app where the rebooted titles can be sold. They will have same-day digital releases. This will end up “making DC Comics the first of the two major American publishers to release all of its superhero comic book titles digitally the same day as in print.” This is what DC’s blog explains. This comes after a comparable move by Archie Comics, which pioneered the strategy.

Citations

National Post

arts.nationalpost.com/2011/05/31/dc-reboots-entire-line-of-comic-books/

MSNBC

today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43232629

Titans Tower

titanstower.com/monitor/?p=3118

Recession affects teen purchasing

The youngest demographic of consumers is now noticing the pinch of the tough economy. Teen spending is dropping, states the new 2011 Teens & Money Survey from Charles Schwab & Co.

Even teenagers recognize the problem

Traditionally, teens ignore economic trends and spend impulsively no matter the crunch on the purse strings at home. However, teen purchasing is down 14 percent this spring. It is a huge impact. As a group, teenagers spend an average of $125 billion in the United States each year.

Still getting home entertainment

Apparel, beauty products and entertainment things for instance movies or concerts are typically where the majority of the adolescent spending goes. Home entertainment appears to be the only place teenagers continue to spend a lot of money. There was an increase from 7 to 8 percent of teenager spending spent on music, DVDs and video games.

More aware

According to the Schwab study, 90 percent of teenagers surveyed said they were impacted by the tough economy. Schwab concludes that they have a heightened understanding of financial problems than they did four years ago. More of the teenagers seemed to appreciate what they were given. They also had fewer impulsive spending habits.

The ‘Recession Generation’

Senior vice president of Schwab Community Services is Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz. She said, “It seems clear that the great recession has changed the mindset of teens. It has given these ‘Recession Generation’ youth(s) a deeper appreciation for what they have and how hard their parents work. This may be the silver lining to the economic downturn.”

Changing in the home first

”To help quench their thirst for material goods, teens appear to have opened up to the idea that learning about money management is a potential solution to the problem,” according to Kids Money Management founder Bryan Sommer. “To help quench their thirst for material goods, teens appear to have opened up to the idea that learning about money management is a potential solution to the problem,” Bryan Sommer said. Sommer is the kids Money Management Founder.

Parents were probably the most named individuals by teens that taught adolescents about money. This is how their finance education came. Basic financial management was taught by parents for 82 percent of the teens in the survey. With finances, 77 percent said their parents were even role models. That’s also good news.

Joblessness a factor

Unemployment accounts for some of this trend in adolescent purchasing. The teenager unemployment rate, at 22 percent, is the lowest it has been in 10 years.

Citations

Newser

newser.com/story/57269/recession-wary-teens-cut-back-on-spending.html

Commoncensus

commoncensus.blogs.nuwireinvestor.com/2008/04/recession-forces-teens-to-curb-spending.html

Daily Finance

dailyfinance.com/2011/05/31/recession-sobers-americas-once-free-spending-teens/

Sex change insurance coverage something Portland mayor wants for city workers

If you are a Portland, Ore., city employee and are considering sex change operation, Mayor Sam Adams is working for you, states Portland Online. Adams has proposed regulation that would persuade area health insurance to cover the high cost of the treatment for transgender employees. As early as June, Portland Community Council is anticipated to vote on the mayor’s proposal.

‘Fair, common sense,’ said Adams

According to Mayor Adams, the bill is “fair, common sense.” This is what he told The Oregonian newspaper. If the legislation makes its way into law, it would override the previous year’s area committee decision to veto gender change medical operation coverage out of Portland’s self-insurance fund. The denial occurred as the committee could not reach the consensus needed to recommend change to city policy.

According to Adams’ estimates, transgender operation benefits for Portland area employees would cost around $32,000 per year. There would be about a .08 percent increase in the self-insurance plan budget for the city.

Coverage covers ‘medically necessary’ things

The American Medical Association made a decision in 2008. It decided that transgender health care is “medically necessary.” Under the AMA resolution, withholding coverage for treatment of gender identity disorder when such treatment has been prescribed by a physician isn’t allowed.

“As Mayor, it is important to me that we attract and retain the best and brightest employees to the City of Portland,” writes Adams in a press statement. “Covering basic, medically-necessary care is a matter of fairness, and it’s the right thing to do.”

Picking an insurance

Portland gives two possibilities to employees for health insurance including a self-insurance plan called CityCore and insurance through Kaiser. Adams’ proposition would make Portland much more like the businesses in Oregon surrounding it and like 22 percent of Fortune 100 Corporations. This is because CityCore would cover gender change medical operation.

It all started in San Francisco

San Francisco became the first U.S. area that had transgender medical operation benefits available in a health plan in 2001. Then-Mayor Willie Brown and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a bill that extended coverage of the gender change operation for city employees, as well as accompanying hormone treatments and related medical needs.

Male to female operation costs $37,000 and female to male cost $77,000 at that time. City employees had to pay 15 percent if the surgeon was on the area health plan with the San Francisco ordinance. The fees capped at $50,000 per person for life though.

Portland Mayor Sam Adams at a Portland same-sex marriage rally

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BMPgHIrjKA

Citations

Basic Rights Oregon

basicrights.org/

OregonLive.com

blog.oregonlive.com/portlandcityhall/2011/05/mayor_sam_adams_to_push_sex-ch.html

Portland Online

portlandonline.com/mayor/?a=350579&c=49278

SF Gate

sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/02/16/MN202072.DTL

Small automobiles outselling electric automobiles

Vehicle getting habits among Americans have modified as the cost of gas has been rising. {However, American consumers aren’t getting as many green cars such as hybrids and electric cars as they are compact and subcompact automobiles that sip the gas tank|That said, individuals are not getting more hybrids or electrics. Rather than green automobiles, people have been getting smaller compact and subcompact cars that sip daintily from the tank|Compact and subcompact automobilesare still far more popular than green automobiles, as individuals still want traditional cars that only sip from the tank| Subcompact and compact cars are still more favored than gree! n automobiles like electrics or hybrids, as traditional automobiles that take just a little from the tank are selling better than greener but more costly and less useful possibilities|Small compact and subcompact vehicles that sip from the tank in the lightest manner possible have proven to be the best sellers, as buyers have been avoiding less useful and more expensive green options.

The Leaf not favored among 60 percent of Americans

According to a recent poll, electric automobiles are not that favored. In fact, about 57 percent of Americans would never purchase one, reports USA Today. No matter what gas costs, those in the poll said they’d rather have traditional, internal combustion driven cars. Compared to gas cars and hybrid automobiles with backup gas engines, electric vehicles have limited ranges, which people in the poll noticed. Currently, electric auto technology limits the driving range of the cars to a point that is impractical for most drivers. This year, fewer than 11,000 electric cars will sell in the U.S., according to J.D. Power and Associates, although that number will increase in 2015 to about 100,000. This year, about 14 million compact and subcompact cars will sell with that number increasing by 2015 to 15 million, Power thinks.

More than just an engine and two seats in there

Compact and subcompact cars are no longer the strictly budget affair they used to be, according to the Wall Street Journal. Typically, a small, boxy hatchback would be two seats, a manual gearbox and a motor the size of a toaster oven, but car makers are beginning to slip luxury into their economy offerings. The Hyundai Elantra, for example, has models with heated rear seats, and it gets 40 miles per gallon. The Ford Focus Titanium comes equipped with windshield wipers that are rain-activated and a rear-facing camera for driving in reverse. The Ford Focus has something only a Ferrari would have. It has a dual clutch, six speed transmissions offered. The 2012 Honda Civic will have voice-activated GPS navigation, Bluetooth phone equipment and an iPod dock. Subcompacts are being purchased by wealthier customers now.

Going to Chrysler

One of the biggest events in the vehicle industry over the last few years is Fiat purchasing a stake in Chrysler. This has been a fantastic move for Chrysler. The business is now closer to paying the American and Canadian governments off while launching in the U.S. the Fiat 500. Fiat recently staged a bit of a pre-launch stunt by filling a street in New York City’s SoHo district with 20 500 Cabriolet automobiles, according to CNN. Fiat hasn’t had a U.S. presence for almost 30 years, but it will start selling subcompact vehicles very soon. Until the new Alfa Romeo, the Alfa Romeo Giulia, gets its design issues fixed, it will not be coming to the U.S. as several suspected the Fiat brand would. It should be fixed by 2013 though, states MotorTrend.

Citations

USA Today

usatoday.com/money/autos/2011-05-24-most-americans-refuse-electric-cars_n.htm

Wall Street Journal

online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304066504576343201704359810.html?mod=WSJ_Autos_LS_Autos_2

CNN

money.cnn.com/2011/05/25/autos/fiat_500_publicity.fortune/index.htm

Motor Trend

wot.motortrend.com/report-alfa-romeo-launch-pushed-2013-66663.html

Ethanol is fiscally imprudent, says Pawlenty

GOP presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty showed brass during his candidacy announcement, reports The Daily Caller. The previous Minnesota governor did not mince words, calling ethanol subsidies an idea whose time has come and gone. Intellectual Takeout explains that ethanol fuel proponents cling to the renewable fuel argument, but enough criticisms of ethanol are there to justify exploration of whether there should be government subsidies for it to begin with.

U.S. farms have to grow corn

Growing corn remains an indelible stroke on the U.S. agrarian canvas. Even traditional bluegrass nuggets like “The Boy Who Wouldn’t Hoe Corn” equate the ability to grow corn with male virility:

“Why do you come for me to wed?
Can’t even make your own corn grain.
Single I am and will remain;
A lazy man I won’t maintain.”

Buying a culture

The U.S. has become more interested in renewable fuel sources such as ethanol because of the automotive industry’s interest in fuel efficiency. Political lobbies like the National Corn Growers Association have given ethanol fuel production its full support.

Some politicians do not believe it is worth it to have the government subsidy though for instance Pawlenty. Using grains to produce an option fuel to gasoline has already started to create shortages that have elevated the cost of corn. Pawlenty explained that it is more significant to have cheap grain than food. He helped Minnesota manage its fiscal challenges while reducing ethanol subsidies, and he believes he can do the same for the U.S.

“I’m here today to tell Iowans the truth about federal energy subsidies,” said Pawlenty during his presidential candidacy announcement. “(That includes) federal subsidies for ethanol… (They must) be phased out gradually. We need to do it fairly. But we need to do it.”

Ethanol and just how it will change fuel efficiency

Scientists explain that ethanol fuel has 34 percent less energy per unit of volume. This is when it is compared to traditional gasoline used in automobiles. As a result, ethanol only car engines use as much as 50 percent more fuel than a standard gas engine.

The connection between miles per gallon and ethanol fuel shows a lot. It has a lot of people reconsidering how viable ethanol is. An increased national MPG standard is anticipated by people such as Keith Crain. With this occurring, it may not be possible for ethanol fuel to really be used.

Citations

Auto News

autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110523/OEM01/305239986/1137

The Daily Caller

dailycaller.com/2011/05/23/pawlenty-announces-2012-run-under-banner-of-truth-tells-iowans-that-ethanol-subsidies-must-be-phased-out/

Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel

Intellectual Takeout

intellectualtakeout.org/library/agriculture/ethanol-renewable-energy

National Corn Growers Association

ncga.com/

Tim Pawlenty

timpawlenty.com/

Tim Pawlenty, et al, on ethanol subsidies

youtube.com/watch?v=V5y6E2TQTw0

Utah anti-prostitution law bans acting sexual

Laws that regulate any sexuality are sometimes controversial. Utah anti-prostitution laws are no exception. Not only does the law make prostitution illegal, but the recent amendment to the law is so broadly worded that it may possibly make acting sexy illegal in itself.

Sex offerings illegal in Utah, even if they’re implied

In order to help undercover agents trying to stop the sex trade from occurring, an anti-prostitution legislation was put into place in Utah, according to the Salt Lake City Law enforcement Chief Chris Burbank. It is intended to protect officers who are asked by actual prostitutes to “expose or touch themselves” to prove they are not police, as such acts violate Utah legislation. Any “lewd” or “suggestive” nonverbal act is not illegal with the amendments to Utah’s sex laws on top of straight out asking for money from sex.

According to Burbank, non-prostitutes will not be targeted with the law. It is simply to stop the sex trade from occurring, specifically when under-aged parties are involved.

“Officers were being put in a position that we’re not going to allow, so we took a different direction,” he told the AP.

Not legal to act sexy

Lawyer Andrew McCullough, who is representing the escort services in the lawsuit, believes that Utah’s anti-prostitution law is so broad that all workers in sexually oriented businesses are in legal danger. Escort services and strip club dancers who traditionally express their sexuality or “act sexy” as parts of the job aren’t necessarily soliciting sexual contact, argues McCullough.

“Most girls who touch their breasts are not telling you they’re open for sex,” the attorney said.

Not allowed to be sexual at home

A Massachusetts bill is considering making intercourse illegal between some people. If they are in the divorce process, it would be illegal to do this within home. Wrentham, Mass., Selectman Robert Leclair explained the point is to stop domestic violence. It is intended to protect kids too. Several argue parents lose their rights with this law. They also suggest that sexual relationships in the home would be banned entirely until a divorce is finalized, which is broad wording in the bill.

The good news is the bill would stop lifetime alimony payments. A spouse would not have to pay too much to the other.

Adding to that with bestiality

Don’t forget Florida Senate Bill 344. It would have made bestiality illegal. Sen. Nan Rich of Sunrise, Fla., who first introduced the bill in 2009, believes that such legislation is long overdue in the Sunshine State. Some say SB 344 needs to be reworded. It is fairly broad as well. Escapist Magazine explained that the word “animals” in the phrase “sex with animals” might refer to humans also. This means sexual intercourse would be banned in the state amongst humans.

Articles cited

Associated Press

wapo.st/jgXAOq

Escapist Magazine

escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/528.283827-Florida-outlaws-sex

Mother Jones

motherjones.com/mojo/2011/05/annals-big-government-florida-ban-bestiality-baggy-pants

My Fox Boston

bit.ly/m50Qb6

David Archuleta’s dad Jeff could not resist the sexy (allegedly)

youtube.com/watch?v=xm6R-V3tL8g

Will small financial institutions sink below the CFPB waves?

The CFPB has been called out by the American Bankers Association, reports Investor’s Business Daily. Community banks and credit unions suspect over one thousand of their kind will cease to exist, due to what they see as over-regulation from the Dodd-Frank Act. Regulatory power unchecked – that’s what the ABA calls the large Dodd-Frank gun in the CFPB’s hands.

Strong enforcement arm in consumers’ corner

All United States Financial institutions should watch out since “change is coming” and they will have to follow new rules, according to interim chief of the CFPB, Elizabeth Warren. More than half of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s budget will be directed at supervision and enforcement, a fact Warren has used on multiple occasions to accentuate talk of the fervor with which the CFPB will defend the financial rights of United States customers.

Chances a bank will go out of business

By the end of the decade, over 1,000 banks will probably go out of business if the Dodd-Frank rules are established, according to ABA representatives. Any information requested, in any format requested, must be given to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by banks. The resources taken to put this together could possibly be devastating to small banks. Furthermore, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act’s eye against predatory lending will reportedly require banks to collect more borrower demographic information than ever before so that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can determine whether discrimination is occurring.

Community banks and credit unions will probably have a difficult time with this since they typically will make loans larger banks will not, ABA Chairman Stephen Wilson explained to Investor’s Business Daily. The more small banks that shut down, the fewer capital sources remain accessible. Wilson explains that consumers will end up with higher rates and fees this way.

“If we tie up our capital system, it’s going to take money away from the people who need it to create jobs,” warned U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue.

Still no CFPB director

Though the organization is slated to launch July 21, the CFPB still does not have a permanent chairperson in place. President Obama will most likely nominate Warren although lawmakers are not so keen on the idea if they support the banking industry. Warren states that her goal is to make the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau “toothless” although Republicans are concerned too much power is being given to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

In just two and a half years, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 changed 16 rules. The Dodd-Frank Act will require more than 250 rule changes over several years.

Information from

American Bankers Association

aba.com/default.htm

Florida Realtors

floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?id=259538

Investor’s Business Daily

investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/572889/201105201812/1000-Small-Banks-May-Be-Shut-Down-Due-To-Dodd-Frank.htm

SEC

sec.gov/about/laws/soa2002.pdf

Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wisc.) fights for community banks and credit unions

youtube.com/watch?v=8yqmp_kIucQ